Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Fact Check Fact Check

TRUMP: "Had we taken the oil (in Iraq) -- and we should have taken the oil -- ISIS would not have been able to form."

THE FACTS: Donald Trump's assertion that the U.S. should have seized Iraq's natural resources would have required that it also seize control of the country and at no point was the U.S. in a position to do so.

To achieve Trump's stated goal of destroying Islamic State militants' revenue stream, the U.S. has bombed oil facilities in Iraq. The bombing was designed to render the oil facilities inoperable, but not destroy them, so Iraq could rebuild its economy with its oil when the conflict ended.

(Emphasis mine)

The AP is WRONG. The USAF has bombed oil facilities in Syria not in Iraq. This is actually very relevant. Trump claims the US could have cut off ISIS funding by seizing Iraqi oil. He displays his ignorance. ISIS is partly funded by selling Syrian oil (or was before the bombing). ISIS hasn't captured Iraqi oil fields.

They all look alike to Trump. Not just all Arabs but also all Arab countries. He has also incorrectly claimed that ISIS has captured and sold Libyan oil.

I guess it is hard to understand that proceeds from selling Syrian oil is (or was) a large part of the ISIS budget, because Syria has never been a major oil producer. It is possible, because the ISIS budget, while very large for a terrorist organization, is very small compared to the export revenues of a major oil producer.

Trump's inability to understand that Iraqi and Libyan oil fields are not the same as Syrian oil fields is one proof that he isn't qualified to be president. Failure to note that gross error is a gross fact checking error.